City Hopes Multicultural Approach Mollifies Critics Of Creche

City Hopes To Mollify Critics Of Creche

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus will have to make room for other holiday symbols to overcome objections to Hartford's Nativity scene from the Connecticut Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Nativity scene, which has been a fixture on city property in downtown Hartford since 1925, was almost removed from Burr Mall last year when a Hartford resident complained that the display of the creche violated the separation of church and state doctrine.

To avoid the dispute this year, the city decided to put the creche on the lawn of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, but some objected that the creche is city-owned.

Instead, Linda A. Bayer, interim head of the city's recreation department, said Monday she would avoid the argument by bringing the traditional stable scene back to Burr and adding other holiday symbols, such as Santa Claus, Rudolph, a menorah and symbols of the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa.

"It's a holiday tradition, and children love to come down to Burr Mall and look at the creche," Bayer said.

She is asking that in the city's tough economic times, people loan the city symbols of other cultures that would fit in with a colorful display of 6-foot-high animals and people.

She said she wants the exhibit to be up in plenty of time for Christmas.

The creche was commissioned in 1978 by CIGNA Corp. in Bloomfield and given to the city, said Paul Basch, principal analyst for the city's recreation department.

The city's creche has not been a target of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, although it has been challenged in other cities, such as Naugatuck.

But, Martin Margulies, a University of Bridgeport law professor and a volunteer lawyer for the Connecticut chapter, objected last year after receiving an anonymous complaint.

The objections were resolved when the city added some secular items -- such as Santa Claus and reindeer -- to tone down the religious message. City officials planned to leave those figures out this year because they were too small to fit in with the display.

"Personally, I am not offended by the display of a creche, but there are others of different consciences that are and I respect their consciences," he said.

Bayer said she thought they had resolved the dispute this year when the Rev. H. Paul Santmire, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Hartford and a member of the Asylum Hill Christian Community, proposed that the display be put at the Cathedral of St. Joseph.

The display was to be set up just west of the cathedral next to the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen ministry that is sponsored by the Asylum Hill Christian Community.

The city would have leased the creche to the Asylum Hill group, but Margulies objected, saying that by leasing it to a private group, the city still would be sending a religious message.

Besides, he said, during the civil rights battles in the South, municipalities leased out schools to private organizations to get around obeying the desegregation rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I'm disappointed," Santmire said Monday. "It appears now that the ACLU is trying to figure out how many angels can sit on the head of a pin rather than the theologians."

Bayer said Monday night that her office would not consider selling the creche now because of insufficient time.

So, she is looking for Santas, reindeer and symbols of other cultures.

Barbara A. Dicks, professor of social work at the University of Connecticut in West Hartford, suggested adding a display of Kente cloth or the seven candles -- three red, three green and one black -- of the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa, which begins Dec. 26.

Dicks said it is the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Kwanzaa, the seven-day harvest feast that celebrates such virtues as faith, creativity and unity and was started by Maulana "Ron" Karenga, a professor of black studies at California State University in Long Beach.